Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, July 21,  2003

Immigration Captures
An early morning raid by immigration officials on a downtown San José bar Friday led to the capture of four suspected Dominican "coyotes," -- people paid to smuggle illegal immigrants across borders -- suspected of operating an international people smuggling network.
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Ticos Roll Past Salvador, 5-2
By Tim Rogers
trogers@ticotimes.net

We have liftoff: Tico striker Winston Parks heads the ball past Salvadorean goalie Victor Manuel Velasquez in 1st half of action. TT Photo / AFP

FOXBOROUGH, Massachusetts - Gillette Stadium may be 3,000 miles away from Central America, but you wouldn't have known that Saturday when 15,000 Costa Rican and Salvadoran soccer fans packed the stands for the CONCACAF Gold Cup quarter-finals.

The well-mannered U.S. fans who attended the game looked a little nervous as the stadium filled with rowdy Tico and Salvadoran fans, who beat drums, chanted and yelled in Spanish, waved flags and occasionally threw plastic beer bottles.

In a well-fought game that was played as if the fate of the world depended on it, both sides were given a lot to cheer about.

The Sele came out firing, moving the ball nicely from midfield to attack. Tico playmaker Wilmer "Pato" Lopez came out of his two-game shell and controlled the ball at midfield, feeding the attack with crisp passes.

Salvador, which was coming off a sluggish win against Martinique last Wednesday, also played for keeps, pressuring the Tico defense early on.

The Tico attack hit its mark in the 11th minute of the game, when Erick Scott scored on a rebounded shot by Winston Parks.

But Costa Rica lost its momentum 25 minutes later, when El Salvador was awarded a penalty kick that was converted into the equalizing goal by Salvadoran striker Gilberto Alfredo Murgas.

Costa Rica regained the lead in the last second of the first half when Walter Centeno, who ended up scoring three of the Ticos five goals, blasted a shot off the post and into the Salvadoran net for a 2-1 advantage.

Salvador tied up the game again in the 53rd minute, when Alfredo Alberto Pacheco drilled a beautiful free-kick shot from outside the 18-yard line. Emotions and nationalism were running high in the stands, and the crowd started to get ugly when Costa Rica was awarded a penalty kick in the 66th minute.

Salvadoran fans sitting behind the goal unleashed a barrage of plastic beer and water bottles onto the field. And when Centeno converted the penalty kick into the go-ahead goal, fights started breaking out in the stands.

Tico forward Steven Bryce, who was substituted into the game in second half, added an insurance goal in the 71st minute, and Centeno capped the game off with another penalty kick goal in stoppage time.

Costa Rica will meet Mexico, which steamroller over Jamaica 5-0 yesterday, in the semi-finals Thursday in Mexico City. The other semi-final match will be held in Miami Wednesday between the U.S. and Brazil.

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Immigration Captures
Dominican "Coyotes"
By Jon Gambrell
Tico Times Staff

An early morning raid by immigration officials on a downtown San José bar Friday led to the capture of four suspected Dominican "coyotes," -- people paid to smuggle illegal immigrants across borders -- suspected of operating an international people smuggling network.

According to the Security Ministry, Immigration agents, with help from the Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ) and police, arrested four Dominicans identified as Luz María Peña, Daniel Caravallo, Cristobal Martinez and Edison Rodriguez, who are suspected of being part of an international smuggling network that operates across Latin America and the United States.

During the operation, which was carried out at 5 p.m. on Tierra Dominicana bar in downtown San José, 10 Costa Ricans suspected in being a part of the network. were also detained.

Marco Badilla, director of immigration, said that the operation was aided by intelligence gathered by several Latin American countries and the United States.

"These arrests were important to Costa Rica, as they are for the rest of the Latin America," he said.

Currently, immigration officials are evaluating whether the Dominicans should be extradited to face justice in the United States.

On the same day, immigration police also had carried out operations at various hotels, motels, pool halls, and bars throughout the capital city. According to Security Ministry, 216 people were questioned and 38 foreigners were detained. The majority of those detained, 27, were Nicaraguan. Four Dominicans, one U.S. citizen, one Colombian, one Panamanian, one Honduran, one German, and one Spaniard were also detained.

During the operations, police officers found 20 people with warrants out for their arrest and 17 with outstanding citations.

Meanwhile in Límon and Talamanca, immigration agents and police detained 12 foreigners between Thursday night and Friday morning. Those detained, five Columbians, five Nicaraguans, two U.S. citizens, one from El Salvador, and one from Belize, had "irregular" immigration records according to the Security Ministry.

On Saturday in Liberia, two Czechs were detained by police. According to reports, the two had Nicaraguan visas, but were in Costa Rica illegally. Currently, immigration officials are debating whether to return them to Nicaragua or deport them to the Czech Republic.

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Casa Alianza: Half a Million
Signatures and Counting

A woman participating in Saturday's peaceful rally holds up a candle. TT Photo / AFP

Hoping to petition the government to enact a law requiring the registry of sexual predators, child advocacy group Casa Alianza announced Friday it had more than half a million signatures in favor of the "Kattia and Osvaldo Law."

On Friday morning, Casa Alianza had 325,585 signatures. That number ballooned to more than 515,000 with the addition of others sent by fax to Casa Alianza's offices.

On Saturday, a vigil was held in Paseo Colon for the project, which aims to force the government to pass legislation similar to "Megan's Law" in the United States, forcing the mandatory registration of sexual predators in Tico neighborhoods. With registration, Casa Alianza believes that such tragedies as the deaths of Kattia González and Osvaldo Madrigal can be avoided (TT, July 11, 18).

See Friday's edition of The Tico Times for more on the proposed bill and
its potential effects.

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Basque Separatists
Detained in Mexico

MEXICO (AFP) - Six Spaniards were detained in Mexico under suspicion of being members of the armed Basque movement separatist movement (ETA).

The captured six, identified as Asier Arronategui, Jon Artola Díaz, Axun Gorrotxategi Vasquez; Felix García, Ernesto Alberdi, and José María Urquijo Borde, have been transferred to Mexico City for possible extradition to Spain, a spokesman for the federal police announced.

The Spaniards, arrested between Thursday and Friday in various parts of the country, are suspected of providing "logistical support, both in falsification and financing" to the Spanish terror group, says José Luis Santiago of the federal police.

Three other Mexican citizens, Pedro Ulises Castro Vargas, María del Pilar Sosa Espinosa and Noé Camarillo Cantú, were also arrested and charged with money laundering, falsifying official documents, terrorism, and organized crime.

The group, known as the "Collective of Refugees," planned on returning to Spain to participate in diverse terrorist attacks, according to police.

The ETA, an acronym for its Basque name Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, has been fighting for Basque independence in Spain since 1968. Since then, the group has been responsible for over a thousand deaths.

-AFP

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